First let me start this by saying this is not a report with the intention of bashing or belittling the groups that employ the use of psychics during the course of a paranormal investigation. Instead, this is meant to help show the difference between a psychic impression as evidence to a haunting and “presentable evidence” to a skeptic or the scientific community - and most importantly the public - of a haunting. I have nothing against the use of psychics but feel that the impressions and “evidence” gathered by them are too often used to say that a house is haunted or is the host of paranormal activity when there is nothing more than just the psychic impression. Psychics can very often be right and the impressions can point us in the right direction to look for the evidence we seek, but we can’t prove a haunting solely based on these impressions.

I am often asked how I parallel my occupation as a police officer with being a paranormal investigator. I’ve never really had a good answer. Recently though, I realized that in both fields we are most often dealing with or looking for evidence. As an officer, I’m looking for evidence to a crime, as a paranormal investigator, I’m looking for evidence to a haunting or paranormal activity. In both situations, the evidence is very often collected in very different manners. With criminal investigating we are looking for evidence to something that has already happened. In paranormal investigating we are generally waiting for the evidence to happen and to capture this evidence by either video or photography or with some of our many other forms of equipment. Just because there are differences, it does not mean that we can’t handle the evidence in the same way and ask for same type of proof to the evidence in each.

So how does all this tie in with the use of a psychic? First let’s start with the criminal investigation side of this. Ask any police officer or investigator how many times they “just knew a suspect did it” or “had a gut feeling about something” and then ask them if they were able to arrest based solely on those feelings. They would sound pretty stupid sitting on a witness stand in front of a judge and jury if asked by a defense attorney “why did you arrest my client?” and they simply responded “I just knew he did it” or “my gut told me he did it” and then asked “where is your proof?” You can’t show them your gut feeling. Or better yet, how many times have you looked at someone and said “they are up to no good” or “they have to have done something wrong - why aren’t they getting arrested?” We get these feelings all the time, but instead of solely relying on them we use them to help us look in the right direction and to maybe gather that true evidence that we need. We all have our own psychic ability or 6th sense about the world around us and sometimes we base our actions on those feelings. Psychics are even used in law enforcement quite often on cold cases and missing persons, but they aren’t used on the witness stand to convict a suspect. The detectives still have to go on what the psychic said and then build a solid case and gather the evidence they need after the psychic has pointed them in the right direction.

So now we are investigating the paranormal and your group employs the use of a psychic. You keep him or her in the dark about the whole location and don’t tell them anything to taint their psychic impression of the location. You start your investigation and the night goes completely uneventful. Your EMF meters are showing nothing, you take 300 pictures with nothing but dust orbs, your video cameras capture only you and your team sitting around being bored with your lack of a haunting. Then your psychic goes to work and tells you the whole story of the building, who died there, and how they died. They tell you how many spirits are in the building and whether they are angry or happy to have visitors. They may even channel a spirit or two and you can even hold a conversation with the said spirit. Does this really prove there was a haunting? If you truly believe in your psychic, then it may prove the haunting to you and the rest of your team. But how does this help prove the haunting to the rest of the world…especially the skeptics? Your trying to prove an unproven science with another unproven science. How did this psychic’s impressions help the homeowner who is afraid of the paranormal activity feel better or better understand what is going on in there home?

Say you did it this way…you bring your psychic to the investigation and they do the same as before. But this time they tell you the angry spirit that has been throwing things off the walls likes to hide out in the upstairs bedroom when no one else is around. You then take a team of investigators to the upstairs bedroom. You bring all your equipment and you sit in the dark and await this angry spirit to show itself. Then, while just sitting there, the psychic tells you the spirit is present. Suddenly a picture flies of the wall on it’s own and you captured it on video. You even took a picture of it while it was in mid-flight. One of your investigators had an audio recorder going and captured a class A EVP clearly staying “get out of my room” and during the entire event your EMF meters were spiking like never before. Yes, this is an extreme example, but if it happened I think you would be able say that the house is haunted and have the proof to show it. The homeowner may not feel any better, but they at least they don’t think they are crazy anymore and you can start taking the proper steps to help. I know even all this won’t help prove anything to a diehard skeptic, but lets face it - nothing will. But this will help prove it to the rest of the paranormal investigating community...given that you properly documented everything. But, that is a lecture for another day.

This whole concept falls beyond just psychic impressions, but even to our own personal experiences. If I am alone sitting in a room and with no equipment and I see an apparition and tell the story about it, who will believe me? The people who know me as an honest person might believe me. Single-person personal experiences are tough in this situation, even when someone else is with you and they witness the same thing - it still can be tough. If you write down what you saw and your partner writes down what they saw and then your descriptions match…then we have something to work on. It all boils down to building a strong case for your haunting or paranormal activity. You’ll be more able to “PROVE” to a stranger - who doesn’t know you believe your location is haunted - with actual and tangible evidence. Even the two separate statements of an apparition written by two investigators who didn’t talk to each other is better then a story from memory from two investigators who talked about it previously.

The short version of all of this is simply that evidence is something that can be somewhat backed up and psychic impressions and feelings alone cannot be backed up. I know we are dealing in the world of the unknown and even some of our best evidence to date can still get picked apart by skeptics. We are miles away from having paranormal investigating and the evidence gathered by these investigations accepted by mainstream science. At the same time, psychic abilities are just as far away from being accepted by mainstream science - so why try to prove one with the other. Let your psychic in your team do their work and point you in the right direction. Let them be that valuable tool at your disposal just like any other tool or piece of equipment you bring to an investigation. Just don’t solely rely on what the psychic tells you in deciding whether or not a location is haunted and is the host to paranormal activity.


Article submitted by Josh Mantello
Founder – Lead Investigator

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